Bryan Quesenberry has filed lawsuits against hundreds of small businesses he’d never heard of, joined settlements in courtrooms he’ll never visit, and kick-started investigations for federal prosecutors he’ll never meet.
Thirty-one times, by his count, the Provo, Utah, lawyer has pursued cases as a whistleblower under the federal False Claims Act, alleging fraud by small businesses that got loans from the Paycheck Protection Program, the relief plan set up in 2020 for employers facing staggering losses from the Covid-19 pandemic.
As many as 15% of more than 11 million PPP loans—totaling nearly $70 billion—contained signs of fraud, according to a study released in August by professors at the University of Texas. Often, though, the individual fraud is far too small to warrant the time and energy of a full-blown federal investigation.
So the Justice Department’s Civil Division has welcomed help from small-company employees and lawyers like Quesenberry who file so-called qui tam complaints, acting as placeholders in hopes the DOJ will intervene and that they’ll pocket a portion of any settlement.
“Yes, it’s fraud, and the government wants to put a stop to it, but do they want to go after those cases, or go after multimillion-dollar medical fraud cases?” said attorney Jason Marcus, who specializes in qui tam law for Bracker & Marcus, LLC in Atlanta and has...
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